It has been a while since anyone has found the time and effort to post some history in the making including us. I don't know why, but the entire month of January went by with out the slightest mention of what has been happening here. Although this letter maybe late, at least it is present which is more than I can say for other contributors...
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| The last snow storm the blew in was quite impressive. Not in the temperatures of the accumulation of precipitation, but in the views present in the heavens. While I was headed out to the plant for work, the sun was starting to make its presence known in the land. As this was happening, the clouds were just perfect to capture most of its rays from behind the Chiricahua Mountains and reflect them on to the west side of the range. I had to stop the vehicle and use my phone to capture this photo, but I was quite impressed at the sight. After I arrived at work, I was telling someone else about the cool sunrise, and they shared with me the photo below, obviously taken a little after I snapped my photo. You can see the sandhill cranes flying for their morning breakfast in it... |
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| Here is a photo that one of my contractors took of an Arizona Black Rattlesnake. He was driving around next to Ft. Grant, and saw something cross the road. He stopped and found this little guy starring at him. He got about 6 feet from it and snapped this shot. Great shot, but I don't think I would have tried to capture it... |  |
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Yesterday Terra showed how much fun the boys were having being out working on the cars with me. Truth be told, they do enjoy it, but for only about 2 minutes, and then they are bored, complaining about all the "other things they are missing out on" (like watching TV), and just trying all possibilities of escaping helping. This photo is more indicative of the other 45 minutes of them helping. That is about how long it takes before I get fed up with slave driving and allow them to make their grand escape. Landen is about the only one who continues to "help", but I think that is only because I really don't need his type of help. |
| The last few months I have been hearing a clanging or thumping when I have gone over bumps in the Bronco. I checked the shocks, springs, and wheel bearings, but found no problems. The noise kept getting worse and worse, and I thought that eventually the problem would present itself to me. Then finally the noise became more than I was comfortable to live with and I determined to pull the entire front end off the car to find the problem. As I crawled under the car, the problem did in fact manifest itself to me. The driver side radius arm bushing was clearly worn out. I checked locally and to my surprise not only were the parts in stock, but they were less than $15.00. |  |
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This cheap and available repair could only mean one thing... It was complicated to complete. Sure enough, as I tried to pull the radius arm out of the bracket it mounts into, either the bracket has to come off the frame (3 bolts and 3 rivets) or the axle has to move toward the front bumper by about 8 inches. Well I debated how to approach the repair, and decided that I didn't want to drive the rivets out (as the factory didn't like this method) so I wrapped a 3/4 ton come-along around the bumper and started to drag the axle forward. |
| Well the 3/4 ton chain broke, so I had to enlist the help of a 1.5 ton complying. After this modification in the repair procedure, the axle moved fairly easily. The repairs were completed on the drivers side (bad bushing), but they came two to a pack, so I decided to go ahead and pursue the passenger side. It took less time to complete and now both sides are good as new. As can be seen from the photo above, both of the bushings didn't match. I suspect that at some other time in the Bronco's life one of bushings were changed, thus the mismatched pair. The most surprising thing on this repair was that it only took about 3-4 hours to fix. |  |
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Here you can see the distortion in the spring as the axle was moved forward. I had to loosen the shocks as to not bend either of the mounting bolts that held them in place. After talking to Wyatt, he said that he typically drills out the rivets in the bracket/frame connection and then replaces the rivets with bolts when he is done. In retrospect this is probably a better method of employing as I don't really like moving the axle that much. |
| Maybe next time... Actually I hope that there isn't a next time. Hopefully these things will last the life to the vehicle. The good news is that the clunking sound coming from the front drivers side somewhere has vanished. I enjoy the process of working on vehicles, but it would be more fun if someone else was financing the repairs. They all seem to be more and more expensive as time passes. This one being an exception. |  |
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In other news, the train that I put in the boys room is prone to wreck when either Landen get a hold of the controls or the kids friends come over to a test drive. I have been toying with a way to restrict its speed. It will de-rail when the transformer is set to anything greater than 65%. So I can see two options - First install a resister in the wiring such 100% has the same current flow as 65% currently does, or install a mechanical stop (like mounting a block of wood on the wall so that the lever stops at 65% when it hits the block of wood. Any suggestions as to which way I should pursue? Any other thoughts??? |
| For Christmas, our neighbors got a clown loach blimp. It is made of the same type of material as one of those metallic helium balloons. You fill it with helium and then add weights to the bottom of the fish to balance it out. Then there is a movable weight on the bottom that slides backward and forward to make the fish either climb or dive. The only other control that you have is the back fin. You can control the back and forth stroke of the tail fin, both in speed, and duration. |  |
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It is a very delicate balloon, and they take it over to the gym at the church to fly it. They invited Ethen & Kyle over to try it as well. They both seemed to have a good time. |
| This seems like a fun thing to play with, but not very practical as no one has an indoor arena to play with it in. But they had a good time anyway... |  |